{"id":44482,"date":"2021-01-16T07:25:06","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T07:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44482"},"modified":"2021-01-16T07:25:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-16T07:25:06","slug":"security-council-members-approve-choice-of-new-un-envoy-to-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44482","title":{"rendered":"Security Council members approve choice of new UN envoy to Libya"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nNEW YORK: Security Council members on Friday approved the appointment of veteran Slovak diplomat Jan Kubis as the UN\u2019s special envoy to Libya.<\/p>\n

\nIt came as UN officials said significant progress has been made in Geneva this week during the inaugural meeting of the advisory committee for the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF).<\/p>\n

\nSecretary-General Antonio Guterres nominated Kubis to be his envoy, a position that has been vacant since early March last year, when Ghassan Salameh resigned due to stress after less than three years in the job.<\/p>\n

\nA number of replacements were suggested but members of the Security Council failed to agree on one. In December they overcame their differences and approved the choice of Bulgarian diplomat Nikolai Mladenov \u2014 only for him to surprise everyone by turning down the offer for \u201cpersonal and family reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nKubis is currently the UN\u2019s Special Coordinator for Lebanon. He previously held similar positions in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile Guterres\u2019s spokesman Stephane Dujarric hailed what the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) described as significant progress during the first meeting of the LPDF\u2019s advisory committee, which began in Geneva on Jan. 13 and concludes on Jan. 16.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe mission hopes shortly they will be able to narrow down the major differences and reach near consensus on many of the contentious issues concerning the selection-mechanism proposals,\u201d Dujarric said.<\/p>\n

\nThe formation of the advisory committee was announced on Jan. 3. Its 18 members, including women, young people and cultural figures, were chosen to reflect the country\u2019s wide geographical and political diversity.<\/p>\n

\nThe secretary-general\u2019s acting special representative for Libya, Stephanie Williams, had indicated that the main task for the committee would be to deliberate on the contentious issues that have plagued the selection of a unified executive authority. The aim is to develop solid recommendations the LPDF can consider in line with the political roadmap agreed by its 75 members during their first round of talks in Tunis last year.<\/p>\n

\nThis roadmap represents a rights-based process designed to culminate in democratic and inclusive national elections Dec. 24 this year. The date is also that of Libya\u2019s 70th Independence Day. The elections will mark the end of the transitional phase for the country and chart a new way forward.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis unwavering achievement, this date to return the sovereign decision to its rightful owners, is our top priority,\u201d said Williams in her opening remarks at the advisory committee meeting in Geneva this week.<\/p>\n

\nShe also rejected claims that UNSMIL will have any say in the selection of the new executive authority. \u201cThis is a Libyan-Libyan decision,\u201d Williams said, adding that the interim authority is intended to \u201cshoulder the responsibility in a participatory manner and not on the basis of power-sharing, as some believed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nShe added: \u201cWe want a participatory formula where there is no victor, no vanquished; a formula for coexistence for Libyans of various origins for a specific period of time until we pass on the torch.<\/p>\n

\nUNSMIL spokesman Jean Alam said the Geneva talks have already overcome some major hurdles. This builds on the political accomplishments since the Tunis meeting at which a consensus was reached on the political roadmap, the eligibility criteria for positions in the unified executive authority, and the authority\u2019s most important prerogative: setting a date for the elections.<\/p>\n

\nHe also reported \u201cvery encouraging progress\u201d in military matters since the signing of a ceasefire agreement in October by the 5+5 Joint Military Commission (JMC), the members of which include five senior officers selected by the Government of National Accord and five selected by the Libyan National Army.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis includes the recent exchanges of detainees conducted under the JMC\u2019s supervision, as part of wider confidence-building measures; the resumption of flights to all parts of Libya; the full resumption of oil production and export; as well as the proposed unification and restructuring of the Petroleum Facilities Guards, in addition to the ongoing serious talks on the opening of the coastal road between Misrata and Sirte, which we hope will take place very soon,\u201d said Alam.<\/p>\n

\nHe also hailed \u201cpromising developments\u201d relating to the economy, including the recent unification of the exchange rate by the Central Bank of Libya, a step that requires the formation of a new authority for it to be implemented.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe recent meeting between the ministries of finance was an important effort to unify the budget and allocate sufficient funding to improve services and rebuild Libya\u2019s deteriorating infrastructure, particularly the electrical grid,\u201d Alam said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAll of these reforms are steps that will bring national institutions together to work in establishing a more durable and equitable economic arrangement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nWilliams added that without a unified executive authority, it would difficult to implement these steps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK: Security Council members on Friday approved the appointment of veteran Slovak diplomat Jan Kubis as the UN\u2019s special envoy to Libya. It came as UN officials said significant progress has been made in Geneva this week during the inaugural meeting of the advisory committee for the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF). Secretary-General Antonio…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}